Smsl m500 set up

[Jaysz]

Just looking at the manual
It shows filters only available with non mqa formats but only works with mqa
Also shows led should be blue when decoding and playing mqa and led should be magenta when rendering a mqa stream or file but always blue
Any ideas

 

[Tizziano]

Tell Amir the situation. Apparently the M500 SMSL does not correctly reproduce the MQA. The company in charge of MQA spoke and said that DAC filters cannot be activated because it is precisely the original track and there should be no variation.

 

[amirm]

Also shows led should be blue when decoding and playing mqa and led should be magenta when rendering a mqa stream or file but always blue
Any ideas

MQA can be fully decoded in the device. Or, the software can decode it to 96 kHz and then the device resamples it to 192 for the final step. My read is that the LED color indicates these two modes. So if your player does not handle MQA, then the LED should be blue. If it performs software decode (like Tidal and Roon) then it should be Magenta.

 

[Jaysz]

On mqa with 2 of the filters there is a reduced volume
Shenzhen sent some info saying they have sorted filters but how there's no new firmware
And doesn't matter what sample rate dac shows its what the pc displays even if dac shows higher


So only changes to magenta on tidal when tidal passthrough is of like mine does


Not really sure as manual,Shenzhen and others say different things
Volume is ok with monitors now
Like to see what the dac smsl sends does.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

So should one listen to Tidal MQA with Passthrough enabled or disabled for full MQA decoding and to obtain maximum quality audio. And what color light appears when the DAC is doing the full decoding (including final rendering)?

 

[osasglo]

So should one listen to Tidal MQA with Passthrough enabled or disabled for full MQA decoding and to obtain maximum quality audio. And what color light appears when the DAC is doing the full decoding (including final rendering)?

I find it sounds better when its just rendering and has the magenta color. I noticed with the blue and green color in its full decode mode the dac doesn't run at the right speed (88.2khz or 96khz) as reported in the smsl driver utility which kinda indicates its not doing something right. Anyone else observed anything about this?

 

[Shoaibexpert]

I find it sounds better when its just rendering and has the magenta color. I noticed with the blue and green color in its full decode mode the dac doesn't run at the right speed (88.2khz or 96khz) as reported in the smsl driver utility which kinda indicates its not doing something right. Anyone else observed anything about this?

A bit late but, yes! I also noted recently that having the M500 only on render mode and having the Tidal SW do the 1st and 2nd unfold gives the optimum SQ! Nowadays, Ive been tinkering with upsampling to 358.6K (max in Windows 10) in sound settings. I have noticed pleasant results...not night and day but more smooth overall!

 

[Chrispy]

It's mqa, whaddya want? Actual full files?

 

[osasglo]

A bit late but, yes! I also noted recently that having the M500 only on render mode and having the Tidal SW do the 1st and 2nd unfold gives the optimum SQ! Nowadays, Ive been tinkering with upsampling to 358.6K (max in Windows 10) in sound settings. I have noticed pleasant results...not night and day but more smooth overall!

Okey, cool. I have an external amp that I connect it to which drives my headphones and I just noticed yesterday that it sounds better with rca connection than with and xlr connection to the amp, I'm not sure why but I just noticed this yesterday and I probably need to redo that rendering and full decoding comparison again.

 

[Shoaibexpert]

Okey, cool. I have an external amp that I connect it to which drives my headphones and I just noticed yesterday that it sounds better with rca connection than with and xlr connection to the amp, I'm not sure why but I just noticed this yesterday and I probably need to redo that rendering and full decoding comparison again.

Been that route. XLR and RCA have no audible difference. Tested from M500 to THX 789.

 

[osasglo]

Been that route. XLR and RCA have no audible difference. Tested from M500 to THX 789.

hmm, its probably just my archel 2.5 pro messing with the signal then with its noise rejection processing with the XLR connection.

 

[afico]

To be honest on my smsl m500 as full decoder i see the correct Mqa speed ( even 192)

 

[bobby1945]

http://www.smsl-audio.com/portal/product/downlist/id/13.html

SMSL Download portal - New

 

[bobby1945]

I have been trying various Buffer size in the Xmos USB driver control panel-The default was 512 samples.
I have reduced the sample rate to 256 which sounds optimal to me.
Has anybody else modified this setting?